Mussels with Afuega’l Pitu cheese sauce
Afuega’l Pitu is a famous cheese from Asturias, in the north west of Spain. It is made from pasteurized cow’s milk and it excites the most demanding palates. Their rounded pyramid shape (atroncau) is a classic reference.
In our online shop you’ll find the more classic one and a more innovative one with hot paprika, main ingredients for the following spanish recipe:
Ingredients (serves 3)
- 1 kg. of mussels
- 1/2 cup of white wine
- 25 gr. of butter
- 1 spoonful of flour
- 125 ml. of cream
- Salt
- Some of the broth from steaming the mussels
- 50 gr. of red Afuega’l Pitu cheese
- 50 gr. of white Afuega’l Pitu cheese
Preparation
1) First of all, we need to open the mussels with steam. Remove the beards from them and rinse them with cold running water.
2) If any mussels are opened, tap them delicately on a hard surface and if they don’t close or the shell is broken, discard them.
3) Put the mussels in a plot with a bit of water and cover them with a lid, but leaving a bit uncovered. Steam them for some minutes until all of them are open. If any remains closed discard them.
3) Strain the broth you get and put it apart.
4) Put the mussels with one of the shells in a platter.
5) To make the sauce we melt the butter in a pot and add the flour slowly, as if we were going to make a béchamel. Warm for a few second the wine in the microwave and add to the flour.
6) Stir a bit and add a pinch of salt, a bit of the mussels’ broth and the cream. Turn the heat down and stir with a wire whip until we get a thin sauce.
7) We spread the sauce in two different bowls and add to each of them a different type of cheese. With the wire whip we stir until there are no lumps left. We will get a thick sauce.
8) We pour each of the sauces in the mussel shells, some with white sauce, and some with red sauce.
9) We heat the oven at 250ºC and grate the mussels for some minutes until they are ready.
10) Finally we present them in a platter or individual dishes.